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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Progress Update & Community Gardens Tour (Sat 25th August)

You've been waiting very patiently to hear what's going on. Here's a bit of an update on where things are with the community garden. You'll also find details of a special tour of 4 other community gardens in Moreland that we've organised to give us all ideas for our final plan.

Progress Report
Before we can all start work, a few things need to be sorted out, including:

We need a lease for the garden. We've reviewed a draft and passed this back to council last week. We hope to have a version to sign this week.

We're waiting for Council to clear stuff from inside the garden and remove the old fence in the next few weeks.

Council have helpfully agreed to make us a new fence after the site has been cleared.

We need to know exactly what we're building so we need to finalise our plans.

Garden tour to help planning
Although there are some things we do know about our garden (e.g. a mix of communal and personal plots, no-internal-fences), there's plenty we haven't locked down yet, like how big will plots be? How many personal plots will there be?

Below are some steps that we'll all take to get to a final plan for the garden and answer these questions and more:

1. See examplesand gather ideas
Most of us haven't designed a community garden before. We haven't seen the different ways that different gardens do things. With this in mind, we've organised an opportunity for everyone to visit 4 other community gardens in Moreland to see how they do things and hopefully meet some of their members.

When: on 25th August, Starting at 11am, stop for lunch at one the gardens, finish up at around 3pm.

Mark this on your calendar and please RSVP by post to PO BOX 59, Pascoe Vale South, VIC 3044 or by replying to this email ASAP if you're interested in coming. We'll work out transport and finer details once we know numbers.

2. Pool our ideas and make choices

We'll organise a workshop to share our ideas and make some decisions. This will be where we iron out the details and answer questions like those above. The date and venue will be confirmed, we expect to announce this before the tour happens.

3. Draw up a plan and refine it

These ideas and decisions will be collected, a plan will be drawn up, we'll refine it and then we can get building!

Sound like great fun eh? I for one can't wait. This will be an important part of us getting to know each other so it would be great for lots of people to get involved. We'll all need to be prepared to share ideas, patiently listen to others, find solutions to any problems and eventually reach agreement.

In the meantime, if you have concerns about the future plans or ideas, here's what you can do:

Add your comments to this post on our website (make sure you say who you are)

Welcome!

We grow healthy and sustainable local communities through edible gardening. Our volunteers work together to create a vibrant, sustainable network of community gardening locations and communities in Moreland.

Find out more about our gardens (including what's on):

West Brunswick Community GardenLocated in Dunstan Reserve, the West Brunswick Community Garden is a friendly, welcoming place with communal beds, personal plots and a community composting hub.

Food ForestWe also manage a food forest set in the public open space of Dunstan reserve with many fruit and nut trees and other edible plants and you are welcome to help and share the harvest.

Pentridge Community GardenThe latest addition to our network of gardens is a space we are developing with above ground garden beds on the grounds of the former Pentridge Prison, now part of a residential development.